


The Lion and the Mouse

by InkyCoffee



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien loves Marinette, BlancMouse, Cataclysming is now a word, Chat Blanc - Freeform, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Ladyblanc, Makeouts, Mouse Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Multimouse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-20 12:35:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30004998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkyCoffee/pseuds/InkyCoffee
Summary: Now, with the final glow of sunset fading and her parents well and truly in bed thanks to their early bakery schedule, she was enjoying a hot cocoa and the bliss of staring out at Parisian lights with the smug knowledge she had completely checked off her to-do list for the day.Then a dark shape tumbled onto her balcony and crumpled at her feet, and her world as she knew it changed forever.A MariBlanc/LadyBlanc/BlancMouse birthday present for Cass. Happy birthday, lovely.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 13
Kudos: 101





	The Lion and the Mouse

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sagansjagger](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sagansjagger/gifts).



As soon as the evenings started to get warmer, Marinette loved nothing more than to spend her free afternoons and evenings up on her balcony — tending to her plants, doing her homework, doodling designs. The fact that it added a full storey of house between herself and her parents, thus giving her more freedom to verbally hash out the ongoing boy drama in her life with her kwami, didn’t hurt much either. 

Today had been busy, a beautiful late spring afternoon, spent helping in the bakery, defeating an akuma, babysitting Manon (only for an hour this time), and finishing the worst math assignment to ever exist. Now, with the final glow of sunset fading and her parents well and truly in bed thanks to their early bakery schedule, she was enjoying a hot cocoa and the bliss of staring out at Parisian lights with the smug knowledge she had completely checked off her to-do list for the day. 

Then a dark shape tumbled onto her balcony and crumpled at her feet, and her world as she knew it changed forever.

Only her Ladybug instincts saved her from yelling, and somewhere in the back of her mind she registered surprise that the hand with which she deposited her drink on the little side table was completely steady. She stood slowly, wary of sudden movements, planning to investigate, but before she could get closer, the now-familiar form spoke in desperate gasps as Chat Noir uncurled himself and stumbled toward her. 

“Marinette - Princess - I need… I need your help. I need to be safe. Somewhere safe and happy. I need to think happy things and be positive. Oh, God! I need to find Ladybug and tell her! Happy thoughts. Oh, God, don’t let him akumatize me.”

Her arms banded around him immediately, pulling him down into a hug. He collapsed into her, and after a moment of holding him upright she dropped onto her outdoor lounger, pulling him into her lap and cuddling him close, his head falling naturally into the place where her should met her neck.    
  
She didn’t care that she wasn’t Ladybug right now, her Kitty needed her. 

“Chat, Kitty, I’m here. I’m here, you’re safe. I’ve got you,” she whispered, stroking his wild mane, “Breathe, Kitty. Deep breaths. Focus on me, on my voice. I’ve got you. You’re here with me. I won’t let anything happen to you.” 

She froze as a movement over his shoulder caught her eye, watching in horror as a butterfly approached. For a moment, she thankful that he had his eyes closed where his head was tucked in her shoulder so he couldn’t see it. The butterfly fluttered around for several heartbeats, as if confused, and she hoped that meant she had reached him in time, that her comfort was enough to keep the creature at bay. She tried to relax her muscles casually, knowing the way she had frozen was a sure way to tip him off that something was wrong, but he lifted his head anyway, and her heart sank as he glanced around.

Then he gave a yelp and wrenched himself out of her arms, keeping one eye on the butterfly, circling slowly around her balcony so he was as far away from her as he could be in the small space. He darted one glance back at her, and she could read the resignation and self-sacrifice in his eyes, could see his choice to move away from her was an attempt to protect her against the inevitable of what he was about to become. She had seen that expression too many times now, and it broke her heart every time.    
  
“Tell Ladybug I’m sorry,” he choked out. “Tell her I’m sorry her partner is Hawkmoth’s son. Tell her—” the butterfly entered the bell at his neck, and she had to fight the scream that wanted to tear from her throat at the sight of the purple mask surrounding his green eyes. 

“Chat, no!” she begged. 

“You’re going to regret this, Father,” he said, and something in his inflection tugged at her memory. Someone else she knew used the word ‘Father’ in just that way regularly, but she had no time to linger on the thought as Chat’s costume turned pale white, his eyes going from warm green to haunting ice blue. A cold fear flashed through Marinette as those eyes turned to meet hers. “Tell Ladybug that I don’t want to fight her, but I will.”

It was her worst nightmare come to life, and she had no idea what to do. 

This wasn’t supposed to happen in this timeline. 

At least, unlike last time, he didn’t seem to know that she was Ladybug. That was one secret she intended to keep from him this round. 

“Chat Noir?” she whispered, voice trembling. 

He approached her slowly, a predatory expression in his eyes, making her back away until she was forced back against the wall. 

“That would be Chat Blanc, Princess,” he growled, looking at her like she was his next meal. “There’s no need to be afraid, Marinette. You’re the one person I would never, ever hurt. You’re the one person who has always been my true friend, on both sides of my mask.”

He needed to stop giving her clues about his identity — although if Hawkmoth really was his father, maybe she needed to know after all. That was a problem for later, though — right now she had her akumatized partner advancing on her, and she had no hope of sneaking away to transform. She was stuck as Marinette for now. He was towering over her, and she knew from that other timeline that as Chat Blanc he basically had an unlimited number of Cataclysms at his disposal, that he could turn the world to ash at the touch of a finger, again and again. 

“Chat, please fight him,” she begged. “You’re stronger than this. I know the real you is in there.”

He snarled. “I intend to fight my father, have no fear of that.”

“W-What are you going to do with me?” she asked, staring up at him. 

He had a hand braced on the wall on either side of her head; she didn’t have any chance of escape, and she was very aware of just how close his muscular form was in proximity to hers as he towered over her, leaned in toward her. She was used to being close to Chat, as fighting together meant they often had to get up into each other’s space; she had even been this close to him when he had been brainwashed as an akuma, but she also knew that here, towering over her, was the deadliest and most destructive akuma she would ever face. 

He could kill her easily, right here, right now, without so much as blinking an eye. And she was powerless to stop him.

“You made such a sweet little mouse that day,” he said, leaning in to whisper in her ear. 

A shudder ran through Marinette, though she couldn’t tell if it was fear or anticipation. Having her partner — for whom she had denied her true feelings for so long — this close to her was making her head spin. She needed to fight it so she could be alert, so she could escape, but he was still speaking, a low growl in her ear that had her stomach quivering, the instinct to still somehow protect him from the evil that had taken him over surging in her blood. 

“I always regretted not having you as a teammate, Marinette. You’ve always been someone I can rely on, someone I’m drawn to.” He lifted his hand, stroked a claw very gently down her cheek, his eyes drifting to her lips. “My heart belongs to Ladybug, but you? You pull something in me. I can’t explain it.” The claw dragged down her throat and swallowed, her mouth dry, as she stared up at him. Was the thump of her heart as loud to him as it was to her? His voice was barely more than a growl now. “Maybe it’s just that this cat wants to play with a little mouse.”

He was looking down at her like he wanted to devour her, but rather than saying anything more, those nightmare-inducing blue eyes swept her face one last time, then he pushed himself off the wall, extended his baton, and leapt away into the night. 

Marinette was left leaning against the wall of her balcony, sucking in air like she had just escaped a vacuum. 

Tikki phased through her bedroom window, from where she had been hiding. “Marinette, are you okay?” 

Marinette shook her head. “No, I’m really not.” She finally made eye contact with Tikki, had to fight away the tears. “I have to fight my partner, Tikki!”

“You can do this, Marinette. You can save him,” Tikki reassured her, and Marinette nodded, squaring her shoulders. 

“You’re right. I’m the only one who can. Tikki, spots on!” 

Once her transformation took effect, she opened her yo-yo. Who knew that being able to track Chat’s batton would be such a useful feature? She could see by the blip that he was on the move, and he was headed… straight towards the Agreste mansion. 

Adrien. 

Fear sparked through her at the thought of the boy she had loved for so long accidentally getting in the path of Chat Blanc’s destructive powers. She had to protect him.    
  
Both of them.

Chat Noir was too soft hearted to be able to live with the knowledge that his akuma form had brought real harm to people.

Heart in her throat, she flung out her yo-yo and zipped away. 

It only took half a lap around the mansion for her to figure out where Chat had gone. The knot in her heart loosened a fraction when she saw it wasn’t Adrien’s room, but rather a large circular window on the top floor, which was showing all the signs of having been Cataclysmed. 

She landed on the sill, and took in the scene. 

The room was dark and eerie, with thousands of white butterflies flapping about in apparent distress. And there, in the center, was Hawkmoth himself, rapier out, blade pointed at her partner.    
  
No, not her partner. Chat Blanc. 

Chat Blanc, who had his hand raised, his cataclysm charged, aimed at Hawkmoth. 

At his father.    
  
Whose lair was here in the Agreste Mansion.    
  
Which meant that Hawkmoth was Gabriel Agreste.    
  
Which meant Gabriel’s son was Chat Noir.

Oh, God, that was Adrien. 

She had no time to think about that, though, because Chat Blanc had blocked Hawkmoth’s rapier with his baton, spun around, and was again raising his hand, bubbling with Cataclysmic power, and this time Gabriel had not yet recovered his guard. 

She had no idea if her Lucky Charm could bring back the dead, and she didn’t want Adrien to have to live with having killed his own father. 

She zipped out her yo-yo to wrap around Chat Blanc’s waist, and tugged with all her might. Neither of the men had seen her there, too focussed on each other, so with a yelp, Chat was yanked back, and with a practiced flick of her wrist, he was flung several blocks across Paris. Without sparing so much as a glance at Hawkmoth — she knew where to find him now, after all — she leapt after Chat. A chimney going up in smoke gave her an idea as to where he landed, and she followed, landing nearby and approaching with caution. 

Then she dodged as his staff struck out at her. 

“Why did you do that?” he snarled, circling her, jabbing out attacks. “Why did you stop me? We could have ended all the misery!”

“Killing him isn’t the answer!” she shot back, sending out kicks and punches, using her yo-yo as both her shield and her weapon. He matched her, as he always had. 

  
“We could have had everything!” he cried. “Don’t you see? Victory was at hand, but you got in the way! You’re just as bad as he is. Which means I’m going to take you out first, and then him,” he spat, charging his Cataclysm once more, this time aiming it at her. 

She flipped out her yo-yo, hitting him in the face as her other hand reached out and yanked the staff from his hand, flipped it, and with both hands brought it down, cracking him across the knuckles of his cataclysm hand. Miraculous weapons were the only things that really penetrated the suits, Marinette knew from experience - so only, say, Hawkmoth’s rapier or Queen Bee’s stinger could really do them any damage.    
  
Or her yo-yo, or Chat’s staff. 

Her yo-yo had left a jagged cut on his cheek, one which was already purpling in a nasty bruise, and the staff? Two things happened almost simultaneously as she brought the staff down. One was that she heard the nasty crunch it made across his knuckles, and while she was sorry to hurt her kitty, she was satisfied that the blow had landed. 

The second was that Chat’s Cataclysm was charged and bubbling, so even as he howled with the contact, the baton dissolved as it made contact with his hand, leaving her grasping dust. His agonized yelp tugged at her heart, but she had to keep going. She had to press her brief advantage, even as he tried to charge his Cataclysm again. It bubbled up, but it was weaker this time, and she filed away the knowledge that hurting his hand could affect the strength of his power.   
  
But that was information to dissect later, with her partner.    
  
“Lucky Charm,” she cried. 

A little wind up toy mouse landed in her hands. She looked around wildly, but could see no way to use it. All it did was remind her of Mullo, of the way Chat had spoken to Marinette. 

He had called her ‘little mouse’. He had let her close to him, close to the bell where the akuma was. There was no way Ladybug could get that close to him now that she had both thwarted his plans and injured him, but Multimouse might have a shot. 

With a final kick that slammed him into a brick wall that partially collapsed on top of him when his hand touched it, she ignored the cry of her heart that longed to make sure her partner was unhurt, and she swung away. 

It took a scant 10 minutes to get back to her place, recharge Tikki and tuck the earrings into her pocket, don the Mouse miraculous and transform, and return to the rooftop where she had left him. He was nowhere to be found of course, but her instincts told her he wouldn’t have returned to face off with Hawkmoth again. Not yet. Not when he was injured, when he had lost the advantage of a surprise attack, not when he didn’t have his staff to vault him up there. 

Where would her kitty go?

There was no sign of him on her radar, which she supposed made sense considering he had Cataclysmed his own staff. With a sigh, she called on her multitude power. 

At least she could search the city more efficiently this way. Time for the mouse to hunt the cat. 

She scattered, sending the little pieces of herself in different directions. 

It took time, time she felt she didn’t have, but as one of her miniatures was scurrying across a rooftop, a clawed hand shot out of the darkness and pinned her tail to the concrete below. 

“Well, well, well, what have we here? I thought Ladybug said you weren’t to help out again, Marinette,” he said, bending low so he could grin at her, his fangs on full display. 

“Chat!” she squeaked back. “I saw Ladybug leaving her fight and called her over and told her I wanted to help you, so she agreed to let me be Multimouse one more time. I think she was hoping you knowing who I am would help somehow.”

“Help her? Or help me?” he snarled. 

“Help you,” Mousinette said firmly. Freeing him from the akuma was the biggest help she could offer him, after all. 

“What can you possibly do to help me?” he demanded. 

Her eyes swept over him bravely, even though she quivered in her boots. She saw he was clutching his ringed hand to his chest, the cut and bruising on his cheeks from where her yo-yo had struck him earlier. “You’re hurt,” she observed. “I can help you.”

He growled at that, a feral, wounded thing, and released her so he could back away. “I’m fine,” he snapped. 

“You’re not. Let me help. Please?”

As she spoke, her fellow Mousinettes began to appear, some of them carrying bandages, ointment, and other assorted first aid equipment. Once they were all assembled, she united herself back into a single form, feeling the odd sensation of going from being a dozen people back to being one. 

She missed Chat Noir. If he were here, she was sure he would have made a quip about pulling herself together. But Chat Blanc was too engrossed in his own pain and misery to think of joking around.

She shifted the first aid supplies into one armload, and held out her other hand in invitation. “Please let me see to that cut on your cheek?”

He nodded slowly, his eyes watching her warily as she set out her supplies on top of one end of an aircon unit. She patted the other end invitingly, and he slowly moved over to sit on it where she had indicated, still holding his injured hand to his chest. She could see that the cut on his cheek wasn’t really bothering him, but she needed to develop some faith between them before he would let her look at the hand. She set to work cleaning up his cut in a no-nonsense way, humming a little to herself and when he hissed at the first contact with the antiseptic ointment, she won their brief battle of the wills with a glare and a “Hold still!” 

Only once she was done did she even acknowledge his hand. “Want me to look at that, too?” she asked casually.    
  
He bared his teeth at her, but she just rolled her eyes. 

“You can’t run around Cataclysming everything with a sore hand,” she pointed out reasonably. 

He huffed out a sigh in bad grace, like a pouting child, and held out his wounded hand. 

She studied the glove, careful not to touch the miraculous on his finger. “Does this come off?”

He, too, looked at it. “I… I have no idea. I’ve never tried to remove it.”

Tugging on her part was fruitless, but he was able to find a fastening neither of them had ever seen before and tug it right off, somehow lifting it over his ring, leaving the miraculous in place throughout the process. It didn’t make any sense, she supposed, but what about their magical super suits really did? 

“I guess it has to be me doing it, and I have to want to,” he said, holding out his hand once more. The skin was broken, a clear line of bruising showing across the knuckles. She privately wondered if she had broken the hand, and if her Miraculous Cure would fix it. 

Instead, she cleaned it as best she could, applied ointment to help with the bruising, and wrapped it carefully. Once it was bandaged, she helped him fit the glove back on - it somehow moulded to the new shape. Magic again, she supposed. 

"Hopefully that helps," she said, lifting it to her lips and brushing a featherlight kiss to the glove. He didn't need to know it was an apology as well as her kissing it better.

He was staring at her, mouth agape, those terrifying blue eyes wide with wonder. It was like he had never seen kindness before, didn't know what to do with it. Come to think of it, was any akuma aware of kindness? Then he captured one of her hands in his, tugging her a little closer. 

“I don’t understand why you’re doing this,” he said, bewildered, and her heart broke. 

Tentatively, she lifted her free hand and set it lightly on his chest, above his heart. “Because whether you’re Chat Blanc or Chat Noir or the boy beneath the mask, I can see that you are in a lot of pain in here,” she pressed a little more firmly against his chest to emphasize her point, “and I don’t believe anyone deserves that, especially not you. Because underneath everything, you are a good person.”

“Who I was doesn’t matter any more,” he snarled, but didn’t release her. “Who I am now is all that matters. I am Chat Blanc. I am destruction. And you should be afraid, little mouse. One touch from me, and you would cease to exist.”

She lifted her chin. “You promised me earlier, back on my balcony, you wouldn’t hurt me.”

He lifted a claw to her cheek in a caress. “You don’t understand, do you? I hurt everyone. It’s who I am.”

She took half a step forward, so she was between his knees as he sat on the unit. “You won’t hurt me,” she promised, staring into those cold blue eyes. 

He tugged her forward so she was pressed against him. 

“Won’t I?” he asked one last time, then he was kissing her. 

It wasn’t smooth or gentle. His teeth were sharp, and he was kissing her like he was trying to devour her whole, with nips and sucks. His arms wrapped around her, tugging her into him, and she could feel his claws pricking at her back, even through the mouse suit. He kissed her like he was drowning and she was his air, and oh, she succumbed, carried along by the tide of his passion. She mewled, opening her mouth to his demands, allowing the invasion of his tongue and sliding hers back.    
  
He nipped his way along her jaw, one hand scraping up to catch in one of her mouse buns, leaving it partially loosened. She groaned, moving her hands up to his shoulders, down his torso and around his back, up to grip on his wild mane of hair. In that moment, she didn’t care that he was Chat Blanc, because in her gut she knew that beneath the akumatization, he was the Kitty she had denied feelings for for so long, as well as the boy she had been in love with since forever. She loved him, no matter which version of him he currently was, and to find herself as Marinette — because as far as she could tell, he didn’t know she was Ladybug yet — to find  _ Marinette _ was the one to spark this reaction in him, that  _ Marinette _ was the object of his desire — it was a heady, powerful experience. 

Plus, making out with him was, you know, super hot. 

She had never imagined just how hot. 

Heat licked through her, sparking like lightning at every point he touched, turning her to molten lava in his arms. If it hadn’t been for the way he held her in place, she was sure she would have slithered to the ground in a boneless heap. She surrendered to him completely, tipping her head back and baring her jugular in an act of submission that her mouse-like instincts demanded as she yielded to the cat. He toyed with her, tasted her, nipping and biting his way down her throat, sucking on her pulse point in a way that she felt in the depths of her belly, leaving her utterly satisfied and instantly craving for more. She scrabbled her hands for purchase against his shoulders and simply held on, but as she did so, one of her hands bumped…

...his bell. 

The bell that held the akuma. 

The bell that he wouldn’t let Ladybug anywhere near, because as an akuma he feared the relinquishing of his powers.    
  
The bell she needed to break in order to free him. 

Alert now — or at least, fighting hard to become so against the onslaught of sensation he continued to arouse in her — she tipped her head to the other side, inviting him to continue his ministrations on the other side of her neck, and was delighted when he did so. She moved her hands as cautiously as she could to his collarbone, waiting for his reaction.    
  


He didn’t seem at all alarmed when one hand bumped the bell. 

Taking a deep breath, she lifted one hand, wrapped it around the bell, using it to tug him up, to guide him back to her lips. He sucked in a sharp breath, but relaxed as she kissed him on the mouth, his arms loosening their grip on her for just a moment.

She only needed a moment. 

Wrenching the bell free, she spun away from him, out of his arms, and smashed the bell to the ground, stamping on it with her foot for good measure. Chat Banc howled as his connection to Hawkmoth and the extra powers was broken, and he sank to his knees in despair. 

Marinette kept a close eye on the purple butterfly as it emerged and began to flap away, knowing it would be hard to track against the inky black of the night. 

“Mullo, silence squeak!” she cried, already fumbling in her pocket for the earrings she had taken off earlier, slipping them on as quickly as she could. “Tikki, spots on!” As soon as her transformation was complete, she zipped out her yo-yo, capturing the akuma and purifying it. Then she threw her yo-yo in the air, yelling “Miraculous Ladybug!” with all her might, her eyes already darting down to her partner’s broken form. 

She didn’t feel like she could breathe until she saw the white turn to black once more, saw him lift his head, his green eyes blinking up at her. “M-My Lady?” he looked around, bewildered. “What happened?” he asked as she helped him to stand. 

“You were akumatized, Kitty,” she said gently, not letting go of his arm. “Do you remember anything?”

He shook his head. “I was on Marinette’s balcony. I had just found out— ” He swallowed, and his eyes met hers, filled with grief. “My Lady, there’s something I need to tell you. I know who Hawkmoth is.”

She reached up and cupped his cheek, trying not to stare at the lips she had been kissing mere minutes earlier. “I know,” she said. “You fought him. Tried to Cataclysm him. Then I fought you, and hurt you. I’m so sorry, Kitty.”

He swallowed. “You did what you had to do, My Lady.” Then he looked away. “Does- does Hawkmoth know who I am?” 

Her heart broke for him. “I think so, yes. You called him Father.”

He looked at her timidly. “Do you?” 

She smiled at that. “Yes. Do you know who I am?”

He blinked. “I saw who you are?”

Her heart sank. He didn’t know her. He didn’t remember the taste of their kisses that still lingered on her tongue. He didn’t remember her changing from Multimouse into Ladybug, or know that it was Marinette that had slipped between the cracks of his armour to save him.

He didn’t know his Lady loved him, every side of him.

Perhaps that was for the best. 

“Come on, Kitty,” she said. “Let’s go, take down Hawkmoth.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have made a lot of very dear friends through fandom, but I don't think I've ever made a friend with whom I have connected so deeply over so many similarities of both interests and experiences as through my friendship with Cass. She is one of the loveliest, most encouraging people I have ever met. She has such a big heart, and these past few weeks getting to know her and chatting to her throughout our days has brought me so much joy. This fic is for you, lovely. I'm so honoured to have a friend like you. 
> 
> Also a HUGE THANK YOU to Mia for betaing! 
> 
> (Where did I meet such a cool person, and bunches of other cool people who are also fic readers and writers and fan artists? Why on the [Miraculous Fanworks Discord Server](https://discord.gg/mlfanworks) of course! You should come join us there!)


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